Customer Reviews

Naked Weapon

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

NAKED WEAPON is the story of a group of young girls who are kidnapped by an evil madame (Alma Wong) and imprisoned on a secluded island to be tortuously trained into unfeeling assasins who lure their victims in with their bodies. Those who try to escape will die. Those who stay will one day fight eachother to the death. Only one will be allowed to become the supreme assasin.

This is a pretty interesting variation on LORD OF THE FLIES type survival as innocent girls who form friendships with eachother must determine which is more important, friendship or life. Those who rent the movie based on the sexy cover which features two attractive women embracing eachother while wearing nothing but camoflauge skin paint might be disappointed to find out that this isn't a movie filled with gratuitous nudity and lesbianism. There is some brief nudity (by the beautiful Maggie Q) as well as some tantallizing strip tease type bedroom dancing, but the these are all quite tastefully done, and the two women on the cover are strong sister-like friends not lovers.

Highlights of the film include the wonderfully choreographed royal rumble to the death with the girls drawing numbers to see who will fight first beginning with two on two and the number of entrants increasing as each fight ends to take on the survivor! This is where the director (famed action director Tony Siu-Tung Ching of DUEL TO THE DEATH, FIST OF LEGEND, THE SWORD) really shines. The fights are high flying and lightning paced with each movement of action and emotion visible to the viewer's eye. The best action scenes invovle not only beautiful movements, but actors that actually ACT in those scenes as well showing signs of human wear and tear such as fear, pain, and growing exhaustion. You really see the girls go through these changes as the fights go on making you really root for your particular favorite to make it (although there's really only a few logical favorites to root for based on character screen time). Other highlights include the chemistry between Daniel Wu's character and Maggie Q's (former real-life boyriend and girlfreind), and the climactic final battle between the top female assasin and a Japanese yakuza leader which should impress fans of MATRIX style gravity defying action. Also those who hate dubbed films will be pleased to know that this film is in English with only a couple actors dubbed.

Lowlights include Daniel Wu's acting which is very limited. While his scenes with Maggie Q are a real delight in their naturalness and truthfulness, he does NOT seem believable either as an obsessed cop or as a fighter (his fight scenes are good and his actions are fine, but the weak character he has given us make his fight scenes come completely out of the blue making them feel a little empty). Other lowlights include the lack of screen time given to the other female characters. Alma Wong doesn't have any fight scenes, Jewel Lee has no lines, and Cheng Pei Pei is horribly dubbed and also doesn't fight. The movie moves a little too fast for any of these characters to fully develop relationships with eachother and with the audience.

I recommend the film to those looking for a fast-paced movie who like beautiful women in fancy fights that come fast and aplenty. (There's a LOT of violence and some sexual content and this movie is definitely NOT recommended for children.)

Fans of female assassin type movies may also want to check out NAKED KILLER (this films prototype and superior), HER NAME IS CAT (in which Alma Wong gets to play the lead assasin), BLACK CAT (starring the lovely Jade Leung), and LA FEMME NIKITA (a grandaddy, or rather grandmommy, of its type).

When does a trashy movie stop being fun and start being repulsive? I've been asking myself this question ever since I saw Ching Siu-Tung's "Naked Weapon" (2002). Ching is one of my favorite action directors. His credits include the underrated gem "The Terra-Cotta Warrior" (1989) and better-known actioners like "The East Is Red" (1993). He also provided the fight choreography for several of Tsui Hark's films and Zhang Yimou's two high-profile martial-arts movies. So, seeing Ching's name on the credits of "Naked Weapon" instantly told me that the film would be a quality product. But I was not only disappointed -- I was revolted.

Now, I don't automatically fault a film for being a bit on the junky side. Cult cinema certainly has its place, and so-called "trash" aesthetics can have their own positive properties that are as intriguing as the more "respectable" ones employed by more prestigious films. So, just because some filmmakers might not take their subject matter seriously, or just because they might revel in the artificiality of their medium, that is not reason enough to condemn a movie. Films that utilize trash aesthetics include many of John Waters' intriguing works and several enjoyable romps from Hong Kong like Luk Kim-Ming's "Robotrix" (1993).

But "Naked Weapon" crossed the line from trashy action movie to something more disturbing. Perhaps we're not supposed to take the film's premise -- a secret Darwinian "school" for female assassins where the pupils must kill each other to "graduate" -- at face value, but the subject is viewed with a solemnly straight face, not with a cartoonish or ironic distance. Coupled with Ching's fierce fight choreography, the bloody, nerve-racking events faced by the main character, Charlene (Maggie Q), are harrowing in an unpleasant way. Like other films I detest -- such as Masaru Konuma's "Wife to Be Sacrificed" (1974) or Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salò" (1975) -- "Naked Weapon" seems to encourage its audience to take sadistic delight in its lead character's misfortunes.

This unsettling element reaches its pinnacle mid-way in the film when the "school's" cold-blooded leader, Madame M (Almen Wong), drugs her surviving graduates (presumably virgins) and has them raped by her male guards. The scene is utterly gratuitous, and its gut-wrenching realism erases any ability to view the moment simply as a make-believe fiction. The "making of" documentary that is included on "Naked Weapon's" DVD interviews Maggie Q and the other actresses after the rape scene was shot, and the women seem somewhat traumatized by the experience. Why would a director want to put his actresses through such an ordeal? For what purpose? Furthermore, I would submit that the scene wants the viewer to identify with the rapists, rather than the women being raped.

Now, let me be clear: I am not arguing against all depictions of rape per se. The aquatic rape scene in "Erotic Ghost Story II" (1991) and the invisible rape scene in "The Eternal Evil of Asia" (1995) were too over-the-top to take seriously as portrayals of violence against women, as anything other than bizarre performances staged for the camera. And there are more substantial films about rape where the viewer is made to indentify with the victim. "Naked Weapon's" rape scene is in a different class entirely: a humorless, realistic moment where the (presumably male) viewer is allowed to relish the sexual suffering of beautiful women. Moreover, Madame M never gets her comeuppance in the story (suggesting that the rape didn't warrant punishment), and Charlene's climatic battle with an out-of-left-field villain implies that it was her ordeals with Madame M -- including the rape -- that enable her to prevail. Rape, the movie implies, is a relatively positive stepping stone toward female "empowerment," something akin to a difficult step in a Shaolin student's martial-arts training.

Some comments elsewhere on the Internet say that the rape scene in "Naked Weapon" shouldn't be taken seriously. But the moment is played very seriously in this very serious film. Others say that the scene should be taken within the context of the action genre. I disagree: "Naked Weapon" is already a very grueling film about scantily clad women inflicting pain on each other in order to survive. The action genre mandates neither the Darwinian violence of the "student" assassins against each other (I kept waiting for the girls to rise up against Madame M) nor the male viewer's pleasure in female suffering. I'm appalled that anyone -- especially a director I respect -- would find this sadistic portrayal of rape and violence entertaining.

I saw this movie and I was surprised how good the action scenes were. There is only english speaking in this Hong Kong movie, and there's no cantonese. I thought the storyline was kinda interesting. It's about a woman who was kidnapped when she was a kid and trained to be a professional killer along with other girls. Then things changed for her during a mission in HK, when she was seen by her mother and caught by a CIA agent who recognize her when they were kids. After that, there's some twist and turns in the storyline. What I liked most about this movie was the action scenes. There's a lot of cool martial arts fighting and unique killings. Some of the action scenes are matrix like. The fighting scene I liked the most was Maggie Q fighting Jewel Lee at the house, because of how the fight ended. What I didn't like much in this movie was some of the music. The music is kinda cheesy and some of the acting was weak.

NAKED WEAPON is another foray into the "girls who kick butt" genre. Maggie Q has been getting a lot of attention in the U.S. for MI-3, Live Free and Die Hard and Balls of Fury; I have quite a collection of her Hong Kong films and this is the film that helped break her into the action genre. Tony Ching Siu Tung directs and choreographs the fight sequences; the film is an entertaining mix of martial arts action with cool set designs. "Naked Weapon" is unrelated to Wong Jing's "Naked Killer". Wong Jing started the film but turned it over to Tony Ching in mid-production; the result is not the expected "exploitation flick" but pure action "junk".

Synopsis partially derived from the back cover:
Like a contagious virus, pretty and athletic girls in their teens are disappearing from all over the world. The mastermind behind the abductions if Madame M (Almen Wong), who plans to train the girls into cold merciless killers. After several years of intense training, only Charlene (Maggie Q), Cat (Anya Wu) and Jill (Jewel Lee) survive and become the world's best professional assassins. On a recent mission to assassinate some one in Hong Kong, Charlene crosses paths with her long-lost mother and as a result she comes face to face with a young C.I.A. agent (Daniel Wu), who vows to aid her in cutting her ties with Madame M.
However, the past threatens to catch up with Charlene and Cat....

It's quite hard to judge "Naked Weapon"; despite the usual wooden acting (mostly by Daniel Wu) and the very stiff dialogue; I did kind of like the film. The film starts off strongly enough but gets lost in the middle with the usual morality lessons and the canned melodrama. Surprisingly, the film is shot in its entirety in English and I saw both the U.S. and the Asian releases; I was amazed how the U.S. cut was differently framed and edited on some scenes, the Asian cut showed more skin and nudity. (Especially in the shower scene with Cat and Charlene and the love scene between Jack and Charlene) I suppose the best way to describe the film's weaknesses is that while it contains the all the opportunity for "exploitation" it just uses them to provide wanna-be emotional sequences. Then, it turns around and shows a rape scene that most people may find distasteful; that it is a cheap shot to emulate raw violence. Looking at the special features, I rather thought Maggie Q, Jewel Lee and Anya Wu were a bit bothered by the footage. I guess critics may say that avoiding the obvious (if harmless) exploitation scenes but instead add a rape scene leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth. For me, I thought it was rather an attempt to shock and to express the cold, bitter world of the female assassins.

To the film's credit; Naked Weapon looks incredible. During the action scenes, there are more shots of individual shots than a good perspective view. The action sequences have the usual use of wires and trampolines that may look a bit over-the-top at times but darned if they didn't look sexy and cool. Realism is pushed out the window with the kinetic action sequences. The use of slow motion is used occasionally, and boy, Maggie Q sure looks awesome with the slo-mo action. Thankfully, Daniel Wu only have a very brief action sequence (he doesn't do them well). The film has its redeeming qualities: decent martial arts action, scantily clad beautiful women dancing, bullet ballet, and limited Daniel Wu screentime.

Naked Weapon has a very strong potential and there is always "guilty pleasure" watching ultra-hot women perform mano-o-mano fights in very "short" shorts and tank tops. The film is a visual feast for the eyes; especially for testosterone-driven males (like me). I rather expected more of Tony Ching. Despite the poor script, wooden acting and that it fell to the canned melodrama entrapment that falls like a stone in water; the film did redeem itself with the stylish fight sequences reminiscent of "The Matrix". The film starts off strong and ends with the usual climactic final fight; the film's lasting impression would be how cool Maggie Q and Anya looks. I still remember the very sexy posturing...

Recommended timidly; definitely worth a rental. [3 ½ - stars]

VIDEO/AUDIO: 1.78 Anamorphic Widescreen. The U.S. and Asian release both share the exceptional video transfer with deep contrast, natural colors and strong blacks. The transfer is sharp and clean. What tips the scale in the Asian release's favor is that it has a powerful 5.1 DTS track that magnifies the viewing experience. The Mega Star version is the one to get!

This review is for the Amazon VOD rental of this film. This is a decent B-movie
action flick packed with some hot Asian women. It has a fairly good story line
and the acting is pretty good for the most part. Maggie Q is such a beautiful
woman and is very believable in her many fight scenes. I do not think this film
will win any awards but it is well worth the VOD rental price.

Director Wong Jing did a great job with this movie. It's a Hong Kong version of La Femme Nikita and it's raunchy but so pretty. The Hong Kong style of beauty is sparse features and beautiful long limbs. It's a really entertaining movie, much better than the Hong Kong pretty boy contributions to this genre.

Granted, this movie is far from being one of the best. The acting is poor, the effects are a bit cheesy, and the plot is...wait there is a plot? Bottom line, I rated it more because it was simply entertaining to watch. There are beautiful girls, disturbing sexual scenes, and murder. We don't refuse a donut because of the empty calories, do we?

Notable for being the first major HK film with primarily English dialogue, 'Naked Weapon' represents a more globalized and, may I say, more intriguing version of typical Hollywood action product. Imagine, if you will, high-octane thrills without the self-defeating irony and smug comebacks that turn American films into highly irritating, unwatchable 'no stakes' fare. Moreover, being in English, 'Naked Weapon' can be enjoyed on a more visceral level by North American audiences. Noisy, brash, big-budget 'movies' are a primal draw and a necessary evil; in this case, one can see how they continue to change and, often, for the better.

I've never seen a movie that focuses on female assassins like this. There aren't as many "fight" scenes as I would have liked, however the ones they show do not disappoint!

I got the movie for Maggie Q lets be honest she's hot. This movie has a somewhat good plot, a cast that fits each other. There were great fighting scenes.